Who Owns the Sky?: Our Common Assets and the Future of Capitalism

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Summary: Creative ways of making clean air a sustainable business
Review: Who Owns the Sky presented a very ambitious plan for conserving the atmosphere. In this book Peter Barnes looked at earth's atmosphere as a valuable commodity that everyone owns. In many ways this argument made sense. Everyone uses air, so everyone should consider it important. Barnes explained many reasons why too much carbon secretion is disturbing the climate, not to mention the life on earth. If we need clean air to maintain quality life then the people polluting the air should pay for their damage. Writing in a time dominated by capitalism, it was not far fetched to associate ecological toll on a natural resource to a monetary tax being placed on polluters. All humans and other life needs air therefore there is already a natural sense that one should protect something that is vital to life. Barnes used the association of air as common property to all to be guarded with expensive fines for those who threaten that property. This will convince non-conservationists that the atmosphere is a resource that is valuable.
What is the Sky Trust? The Sky Trust is Barnes' economic investment system that sells rights to polluters and distributes the revenue to all citizens equally. This is one kind of cap-and-trade system that will best relate the energy companies responsible for pollution with the government and its citizens. Shareholders are all equal. All citizens are shareholders. Shares are not transferable. The Sky Trust will be a transparent pseudo mutual fund in which all shareholders will see where every dollar goes. The Sky Trust will affect consumers according to how much impact they have on the atmosphere. This will be measured in the amount of energy a consumer gets from carbon burning sources. The tax paid by the energy companies to the Sky Trust will be transferred to the consumer. This means the people driving SUV's will have to pay more because they need to buy more fuel to run their vehicle.
There are some serious questions that some people have about how the Sky Trust would work. My first one just happens to be the title of this book. Who is to say that the citizens of the United States own the sky? Sky is property of commons, in order to ration does some kind of ownership needs to take place? Why now? What is an accurate economic value to some huge space of gas? What will the effects be on the U.S. and Global economy? When the extra cost of the Sky Trust tax is passed onto the consumer who will be left out and what businesses will die? Entering all the extra charges onto every good and service might collapse the economy.
Barnes does have a working example of his plan, in the Alaskan Permanent fund. This program showed me that there could be good effects to government-organized sale of natural resources. The idea to create an investment portfolio that will outlive the natural resource, while at the same time getting the most money for a scarce resource to discourage overuse is very positive. The positive effects of the Alaskan Permanent Fund also apply to the Sky Trust. If Sky Trust money is entitled to the citizens of the U.S. then they can decide how they want to spend this extra money. Families will benefit from the tax advantages and an opportunity to start a savings because it will provide opportunities that would not be possible before. Parents that are trying to save for their children's college education will be able to give their next generation more of a chance for social and economic advancement than they had. Entrepreneurs will be able to have the capital it takes to get a small business off the ground.
I really like the idea that Barnes advances that sustainable business is possible. He talked about changing the DNA of business to be more socially conscious. Business should view giving back to the community as crucial to the business cycle. It is simple for businesses to make small philanthropic contributions but it is quite another thing to factor in the effects to the community and the environment on level terms with the dollars and cents of the bottom line. I like the ideas in Who Owns the Sky, but I question the feasibility. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in ways of changing the institutions of society to preserve the world's riches while creating social harmony

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Summary: A brainstorm of workable solutions
Review: Who Owns The Sky?: Our Common Assets And The Future Of Capitalism offers opinions and economical solutions to the complex problem of global warming. Author Peter Barnes (cofounder and president ofthe socially responsibile telephone company "Working Assets") argues persuasively in favor of treating the sky as a commonly owned asset, through a non-governmental Sky Trust that would charge rent for carbon emissions and pay equal yearly dividends, which would make the burden easier to bear for workers and firms that have the most difficult transition to a lower-carbon economy. A unique melding of capitalism, enlightened self-interest, environmentalism, and hope for the future, Who Owns The Sky? is just what the world needs most - a brainstorm of workable solutions to one of the potentially most monumental of global environmental problems.